Jackson Slated to Make Hobbit Movie, Sequel

A user writes "Peter Jackson, New Line Cinema, and MGM have agreed to work on two new movies: a film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Hobbit', and a further sequel. From the article: 'The two Hobbit films ... are scheduled to be shot simultaneously, with pre-production beginning as soon as possible. Principal photography is tentatively set for a 2009 start, with the intention of 'The Hobbit' release slated for 2010 and its sequel the following year, in 2011.'" Not sure if it would be possible to nab Ian Holm as Bilbo, but here's hoping.

Re:Not that I care, but

[Chris Burke]

But of course, like every such statement people make (e.g. "There's no way i'm sleeping with that donkey"), there is an unstated but very much present addendum of "unless someone gives me enough money, in which case hell yeah".

P.S. examples are not from personal experience, and you can't prove otherwise.

Re:is this a good idea?

[nuzak]

He will disappoint you. Bank on it. The other 99.99% of us will, however, probably like it.

Hmmm...

[CaptainPatent]

Peter Jackson did a great job in visualizing and bringing to life a story in which the plot was already fully written. I love the fact he's producing a version of "the hobbit" to go along with the LOTR Trilogy, but I'm not so sure about the sequel to it. I realize there is a gap between the two stories (around a 70 year gap actually) but what will the plot consist of?

I suppose it could go both ways, the first way with Peter Jackson doing a great job of tying the two books together and leading straight into the LOTR trilogy, the other with Peter Jackson unzipping and urinating on JRR Tolkien's masterpieces.

How many versions will we see of this film?

[spineboy]

Gold edition, 3D, directors cut? I plan on seeing it since the LOTR was soooo dang good.
I'm really quite interested to see how Smaug is done. The 3D done well might really up the bar for many action movies, and might set a new standard.

However, the movie still has to be good - putting lipstick on a pig still looks awful.

Sequel??

[downix]

Did he get some kind of wizard trick to summon the dead spirit of JRR Tolkein to write a new novel which to utilize as a sequel?

Why do I fear this "prequil" will suffer the same fate as the Lucas prequils, with Bilbo at the end screaming "NOOOOOOOOOOOO"

Actors ...

[gstoddart]

Not sure if it would be possible to nab Iam Holm as Bilbo, but here's hoping.

He might be a little old to play Bilbo as he was well cast to play a Bilbo who settled down for quite some time, but much older than Bilbo was when Hobbit happened.

I'm wondering if they'll be able to get Ian McKellen to play Gandalf again. I'm trying to think how many recurrent characters there were across the Hobbit and LOTR -- Bilbo, Gandalf, and maybe Elrond (it's been a long time since I read the Hobbit).

Unless Sir Ian is otherwise booked, I bet he'd love to revive his Gandalf role.

Though, I must confess, I'm a little unsure of what this other sequel is, and TFA appears to have died under the strain.

Does anyone have more info on that?

Cheers

Re:sequel?

[rehtonAesoohC]

That would be awesome for the nerds of us who stayed awake through the introduction to the Valar.

Re:is this a good idea?

[ContractualObligatio]

This is, of course, a matter of opinion

True, it's all opinion, but even art allows for some objectivity. "Abject disaster" sounds like the small minded bitchiness of someone whose opinion isn't worth listening to.

Re:Note to director: no jar-jar

[gstoddart]

Note to director: please don't add some pointless character to sell kids toys in this movie, just go "by the book", literally.

But, Jackson didn't do that in LOTR did he? Except for some minor changes to the overall arc of the film, I found he did a pretty faithful job of it.

I think he's the director we have the least to worry about. At least, I hope he is. The cinemas wanted him because he has proven he can make the movies (and, of course, make the money) - at least it's not Uwe Boll. ;-)

Cheers

Re:is this a good idea?

[OmegaBlac]

Given the abject disasters that Jackson's "The Two Towers" and "The Return of the King" were

Box office sales, the Oscars (ROTK garned a Best Film award of 2003), numerous film critics, the countless fans that enjoyed the trilogy, and many other film awards disagree with you there. Those two films may have strayed of the Tolkien path somewhat, but to call them an "abject disaster" is hilarious. Fortunately, your opinion is only shared by a small minority.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

This would make the BEST sequel ever

[hellfire]

I think Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn came up with the best idea for a LotR sequel EVAR! Maybe this is what they mean? :)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=EqMV_3JusXY [youtube.com]

Re:Sequel??

[dada21]

You just NAILED another reason copyright is useless, or at least useless for the current years (beyond the life of the author).

Here's a guy who just happens to be a KID of someone who created something fine. Someone else, who puts his money, time and name on the line decides to produce the movie. The movie is a success (by most), but the risk was huge. We're talking a risk of probably 9 figures? But yet the kid who has done nothing, can do nothing, and has no moral connection to the creation thinks he is due some money?

That's the problem with copyright: the actions of an individual are prevented from even being done. If the rights to the movie weren't optioned out a long time ago, its possible the movie might never have been made. I can think of quite a few movies that are prevented from being made because of the rights of the long-dead authors being held closely.

Sidenote: Just yesterday I inquired by Bozo the Clown (Chicago's version in Bob Bell) didn't wear the Bozo outfit when he accepted an award many years ago (before his death). I guess the guy who owned the rights to Bozo's look denied him the costume. Even worse, the guy who owned the rights wasn't even the guy who invented Bozo, but a guy who distributed Bozo shows. Unbelievable!

Comical dwarves?

[uuxququex]

Do you remember that the dwarf was modified to bring comic relief to the movies? That alone grinds against a few nerves, don't you think?

What was Jackson thinking there? "Hey, let's make an epic movie, based on an epic novel. And why not change the complete character of one of the key players?"

I do understand that a movie is not a book, really. But this is not only unnecessary but it is annoying.

Re:Actors ...

[gstoddart]

Lots of studio execs saying nice things about Peter Jackson that they don't believe.

Peter Jackson helped generate several billion dollars in revenue. Believe it or no, I bet nobody in the studio system would dare to say anything but flattering things about him -- these movies will succeed because he'll be given the funding he needs from the start, and the right talent will happily come work with him on it.

I mean, really, show of hands ... how many of us will go see it on general principles or on the sheer fact that Jackson is doing it with hopefully some of the same cast and same fervent attention to detail? If Ian McKellen comes back, I can guarantee I'll go.

At this point, Jackson is the goose that laid the golden ring, err, egg. :-P I bet the execs have been fawning over him for months to get him to agree to do it -- I see they settled all pending litigation and made nice nice. Any other director doing this would fail due to fan hostility.

Cheers

Re:Comical dwarves?

[Man On Pink Corner]

What was Jackson thinking there? "Hey, let's make an epic movie, based on an epic novel. And why not change the complete character of one of the key players?"

He was thinking, "Goddamn, this Tolkien guy needed to get laid. This whole thing is one giant sausage-fest, and ol' J.R.R.'s idea of comic relief appears to have been, well, Tom Bombadil. If I'm going to bring these stories to a wider audience, which I have to do in order to justify the production costs needed to do justice to the material, I'm obviously going to have to tweak a few things. I can have turn Gimli into a goofball and have Arwen save Frodo, or everything else about the production is going to suck. Gee. What do I do here?"

Re:sequel?

[BobNET]

The closest we get is his cousin once removed, Balin.

What about Gimli's father, Glóin?

Remake

[conureman]

Frankly, I just hope I live long enough to see the next remake. Maybe some one could just sort of adapt the books, with some minor abridgement, and not ruin the story.

Re:Note to director: no jar-jar

[tjwhaynes]

I don't have the text in front of me, but from the wikipedia article on Paths of the Dead: The only weapon that they required was fear...

Note it doesn't say that the only weapon they had was fear.

Peter and Fran definitely cut a shorter path through this part of the text, using the Dunharrow Men directly in the Battle for the Pelennor Fields, rather than using the more mundane original modus operandi.

I do feel that a lot of the flack that Peter and Fran got for their script arises where people feel (rightly or wrongly) that recreating the book in the movie is more important than making a coherent movie. If PJ et al had completely faithfully scripted a movie based entirely on the book, only the hardcore Tolkeinites would have survived a viewing of a trilogy with uneven pacing, no (meaningful) interaction with female characters apart from Galadriel and very long sweeps spent with one set of characters. That's not to disrespect the original text, which I have read many times - movies are different creatures to books, with different strengths and weaknesses.

Cheers,
Toby Haynes

Re:I've got a bad feeling about this.

[east coast]

While I can understand where you're coming from I can't help but think that with the success of LotRs that the cookie cutter is now set in stone. Regardless of Jackson's involvement in the new movies there is likely to be little deviation from the overall look and feel of the trilogy as long as New Line has their hooks in it.

Whether this is a good thing or not depends on what camp you come from. All things being equal, little has an opportunity to change as far as the end product. Even if Jackson were to direct and he had a new outlook on Middle Earth I doubt it would get past the execs without a fight, and in that fight the winner would be decided by the golden rule. Jackson wouldn't stand a chance of persuading New Line.

In all honesty I would feel comfortable in re-reading The Hobbit and telling people outright what would and would not be in the film. The first three has set a road map for the next two. While I'll go to see them I'm guessing it's going to be visually appealing but the story is going to be a meager shell of the book.

Re:sequel?

[jspayne]

I watched the movies without having read the books for some time. I found that I didn't notice most of the changes (except for some of the more abrupt cuts). My comments on your nit-picks:

please explain the utter change to Aragon's and Faramir.

Fran and Philippa are on record as saying that Tolkein's Faramir was not believable. Having just re-read the series, I still think this is the most harmful change that they made.

the expanded role of Arwen

Political correctness, merchandising.

the presence of the Elves at Helms Deep

My theory on this is cost savings - they had a bunch of Elven props & animations from the beginning of the movie, and they wanted to use them instead of creating new ones.

why did Sauron have two fingers cut off instead of one?

Unless Sauron wore the ring on his pinky or thumb, this makes sense.

Re:sequel?

[AdmiralWeirdbeard]

I think that the opening, with the creation of the world through the orchestra of the Valar would probably be one of the most epic and impressive audiovisual entertainments ever, if done right.

Re:sequel?

[nightgeometry]

"The movies are for entertainment"...

So what the fuck are the books for?

Re:sequel?

[bheer]

I managed to breeze through the Valars, but for me the dreariest part of the Silmarillon was when it got into the family squabbles (and the looong family trees) of the Elves in the middle, upto the tale of Beren and Luthien. If you think soap operas are bad, soap operas about ultra-longlived creatures are worse.

Re:good, might as well ruin the Hobbit too

[Yunzil]

Don't write- just film the book. Thank you.

Yes, because there's nothing the general audience adores more than a 20 hour movie, of which 15 hours are shots of people walking, accented by the occasional 2 hour Ent song.

Re:sequel?

[niktemadur]

From what I recall (I read the books two decades ago), a good chunk of Fellowship Of The Ring consists of our intrepid heroes dining alfresco in the countryside, reciting songs about the exploits of warriors of yore, as well as an epic love story or two.

But yeah:
- Cutting The Hobbit in two would be an extremely cynical way of milking the cow for all she's worth.
- Inventing further adventures for Bilbo would be sacrilege, especially with writers who take it upon themselves to twist Faramir out of shape because they (think they) know better than Tolkien, also adding a barrage of plastic-emotion Hallmark moments.

However, we all know that Tolkien wrote tons of stuff not meant (in his eyes) for public consumption, reference volumes that fleshed out his broader understanding of Middle Earth. Every once in a while, additional material comes to light, "finished" by the likes of Tolkien Jr.

The best case scenario is that maybe Jackson was given access to a stash of unpublished hobbit stories in the catalog.

One thing is clear, though: No Silmarillion this time. Maybe next go around we'll get to see some combat between Glorfindel and one of the Balrogs.

Re:sequel?

[Petrushka]

but i dont think hes a perfect director. however, since hes done 3 of them already, id rather he continued to do them to keep a similar look and feel to the movies.

Jackson isn't the director for The Hobbit; he's a producer. The summary really ought to have made that clear. According to this morning's news, no director has yet been settled on. I haven't heard anything about a writer or writers. I guess Jackson will have a lot of creative input, but things could still fall through; remember at one point he was going to be the producer for a Halo movie too.